It is desirable that aircraft systems be able to transmit full data, including for example full flight data, while on the ground at an airport, maintenance depot, or in similar circumstances, to one or more ground-based stations for further analysis or storage. One manner in which data may be transmitted from such aircraft is through a cellular telephone modem, WiFi, or other wireless connection, including particularly wireless channels having relatively limited bandwidth.
The time available for data transmission may be limited in some scenarios by factors such as the amount of time that electrical power is available to an aircraft during pre- and post-flight periods while on the ground. Therefore, it may be desirable to transmit all desired flight data within such a limited time window. It is also understood that the bandwidth available for data transmission is often limited by the means of transmission selected. For example, relatively low bandwidth may be available if transmission is to done accomplished through a network such as the that associated with a typical cellular connection. Available data compression techniques, however, do not usually reduce the data enough to allow transmission of full flight data, or all flight data otherwise desired, through a cellular modem in the pre- and post-flight time available.
Improvement in the generation of data sets of reduced, or otherwise controlled, size is therefore desirable.